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a^IGHT or RIGHT? 



I The Fourteen Points and 

I 

the Disposition of 

Kiao-Chau 



Published by 

CHINESE PATRIOTIC COMMITTEE 

New York City 

May, 1919 



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PUBLICATIONS ISSUED BY THE CHINESE 
PATRIOTIC COMMITTEE 

1. China vs. Japan. February, 1919. 

2. China's Claims at the Peace Table. March, 1919. 

3. The Kiao-Chau Settlement. May, 1919. 

4. Might or Right? May, 1919. 

These publications will be mailed upon application. 

Address all communications to 

MR. K. P. WANG 

{Secretary of the Committee) 
* 510 West 113th St. 

New York City 






MIGHT OR RIGHT? 

The Fourteen Points and the Disposition of 

Kiao-Chau 

The year 1918 marked the beginning of an end. All 
uncertainty concerning the ultimate issues involved in 
the war disappeared when President Wilson on Jan- 
uary 8, 1918, voiced the sentiment of all mankind in 
his address to Congress, embodying the famous four- 
teen principles. Open diplomacy, we were told, was 
to take the place of secret intrigues of the past- "Open 
covenants, openly arrived at," were alone to have 
legal validity. Power politics was adjourned, for jus- 
tice, justice that knew not the weak nor the strong 
was to be the guiding principle in international rela- 
tions. Peoples hitherto submerged under the domina- 
tion and oppression of an alien power were promised 
the right of self-determination. Nations hitherto sand- 
wiched between not too friendly neighbors were guar- 
anteed an outlet to the high seas. Such being the case, 
all human beings irrespective of race or nationality 
were filled with joy. They were inspired, for towards 
the end of the year, instead of the ancient Three Wise 
Men of the East, the modern three wise men of Paris 
had given every reason for the plain people to believe 
that, at last, — The New Order Cometh. 

This New Order does not come to China, however. 
The principles enunciated are admittedly sound, but up 
to the present all that China has received is the vibra- 
tion of the sound but not the application of the princi- 

3 



pies. The decision reached by the "Big Three" in re- 
gard to Kiao-Chau is a surprise to all those who are 
under the impression that justice is never meant to be 
monopoHzed by Europe. It is a surprise to the world, 
for a mere flagrant injustice is hardly conceivable. 
The evidence justifies the assertion. Those who are 
conversant with history will recall that in the early 
nineties, the late Kaiser had been fishing for a pretext 
to impose German Kultur on the peaceful Chinese, who 
were too peaceful to offer the desired pretext in spite 
of repeated provocations. As time passed, the mailed 
fist became itching beyond cure, for something had 
to be done before others got busy on the job. Ac- 
cordingly William Hohenzollern took advantage of 
the murder of two priests — no one knew who killed 
them — so that in all solemnity and theatricality, he 
commanded his crusaders to the East to fight for Re- 
ligion, Kultur, and Fatherland. Two priests mur- 
dered and forty millions put under bondage ! Has Ger- 
many acquired any rights in China, recognizable in the 
light of justice, morality or even common decency? 

In 1914 Japan demanded Germany to hand over 
Kiao-Chau with the express purpose of returning it to 
China. The port was captured as expected and it re- 
mains to this day in the hands of the usurper, with 
China as the sole legatee of the damages incident to 
the war and the crimes committed by Japanese sol- 
diers. They had commandeered goods and services 
from a sincere and honest population without 
compensation ; they had caused damages to the amount 
of fifty millions of dollars; and they had committed 
crimes, brutalities and atrocities comparable to, if not 
worse than, those committed by the Prussians in Bel- 

4 



gium and Poland. We have it from the authority of 
an eye witness in those days of military operation that 
women were actually outraged by hundreds. The pub- 
lic is not acquainted with these facts, because it does 
not want to know unpleasant things. It prefers sweet 
things and sweet nothings. It refuses to believe that 
any nation with such an array of princes, viscounts, 
barons and plumed-knights parading the occidental 
world at regular intervals with all the semblance of 
civilization should look like innocent flower only with 
serpents under it. But the facts above enumerated are 
undeniable, and with these facts in view, the question 
may be asked: should the Japanese delegates be al- 
lowed to leave Paris with their trunks packed full of 
spoils ? 

The decision of the "Big Three" is therefore flag- 
rantly unjust in that it seeks to perpetuate crimes that 
ought to be the shame of the civilized world. Two 
wrongs do not make one right. Has B, in robbing 
A, acquired any title to A's property ? And if the op- 
portunist C comes along and robs B, is A's title to his 
property in any way changed? If B escapes unpun- 
ished for the crime he has committed for a while but 
is subsequently brought to justice, will it be right to 
allow C, who has in turn robbed B, to run away loaded 
with the property that is really A's? Is might right? 
To answer in the aflirmative is tq overturn the very 
foundation of civilization. 

The public is yet unaware of the extent to which 
the big powers have been bulldozed by Japan ; if is 
yet ignorant of the consequences. An examination of 
the map will bring out the fact that Kiao-Chau is the 

5 



best port of the whole of North China. It will be the 
commercial center of North China as soon as normal 
conditions return. The control of such a port means 
the control of the economic development of an enor- 
mous hinterland lying in the interior. Japan will be 
able to manipulate things in such a way as to derive 
for herself the greatest possible benefit. With her in 
the key position economic burdens will be unbearable 
for the natives as well as for the outsiders. Possessed 
of a hinterland that has no access to the sea, the Jugo- 
slavs, we are told, are supposed to receive Fiume, 
and Poland has already had Danzig internationalized. 
If the principle of the necessity of an outlet to the 
sea is applied to the Poles and to be applied to the 
Jugo-Slavs, how much more should it be applied to 
the Chinese? If the mouth of the Mississippi as_3. 
key to the whole valley is essential to the United 
States, why is not Kiao-Chau equally essential to 
China? Sound principles must be followed by sound 
application; otherwise they no longer remain sound. 
Many of us can study international relations in the 
light of human nature without being bothered by the 
Sunday school platitudes and afternoon tea ameni- 
ties. They are asking whether China is after all 
allowed to continue to exist. If she is to be inevitably 
doomed to extermination, then for heaven's sake, let 
her die a natural death once for all, without lingering 
or having her body mutilated gradually and piecemeal. 
The question is not so absurd as it may seem. In 
reaching the decision concerning Kiao-Chau, the gen- 
tlemen at Paris are merely postponing the funeral serv- 
ice Japan has planned for her neighbor. She has got 
Manchuria, Formosa and Korea, and now she is 

6 



given Kiao-Chau. With privileges to build railroads 
radiating from both places to all parts of China she 
has woven a spider's web with which she will un- 
doubtedly hold China in perpetual bondage. With 
the aid of the treaties of 19 15 and those of 19 18, 
shamelessly forced on China at the point of the bayo- 
net, she will be able to control her neighbor politically 
and economically and in time to announce to the 
world the passing of the Middle Kingdom. 

"But," comes along the apologist who has an over- 
dose of the sweet nothings of the Mikado & Com- 
pany, "Japan will return the port to China." Evi- 
dently they are not aware that the word "return" is 
not as sweet as it may sound if not accompanied by 
the whens and hows. It is one thing to return the 
port in one year and quite another, in a thousand 
years. It is one thing to return it unconditionally, 
and quite another, if under conditions that represent 
losses to China greater than the alienation of the port. 
Furthermore, have we any reason to trust to Japan 
the fair and square administration of the territory 
even for a short time? Her present outrages in 
Korea speak louder than her promises, which are 
nothing but manufactured luxuries for foreign con- 
sumption. It is time for the world to learn that sin- 
cerity of purpose does not exist simultaneously with 
the creed of imperialism, nor is honesty to be expected 
from power politics. 

Happily the United States is in a position to cor- 
rect the wrongs while there is yet time. She has 
helped China in those critical days after the Boxer 
Uprising. She is not a party to the secret understand- 

7 



ings between Japan and the European allies in the 
dark hours of the world war. She is today not only 
the greatest example of democracy but also the most 
powerful nation in the world. China still looks upon 
her as the champion of a justice that knows no dis- 
criminations and a democracy that tolerates no im- 
perialism. 

More than twenty-four hundred years ago there 
was born in this province of Shantung a man whose 
name was destined to become a household word. He 
was, is and will ever be the idol of all China and the 
moral teacher of her millions. There remains to this 
day at this very spot a temple, ivy-clad and gray, with 
evergreens shading the whole area where pilgrims 
from all parts of the country come to pay their tribute 
to the man who has marked out the moral and spirit- 
ual life as the only life worth living. Had Confucius 
lived today, he would have counseled resistance to the 
unjust disposal of land and people as if they were 
chattels, for in the struggle for righteousness there 
is glory. He would have appealed to America to do 
justice, "not to do to others that which she does not 
want done to herself." Hearken to the sage! 
Twenty-four centuries are looking down upon the 
United States with anxious eyes, for upon the deci- 
sion that the United States is about to make will de- 
pend the possibility of a New Order and the destiny 
of an ancient and distinct civilization. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
020 914 601 ^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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